1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to vehicles having pivotable tail gates which open at the rearward portion thereof to allow material to be spread during the dumping process which involves tilting the dump body upwardly so that the material slides to the rearward of the tiltable body and more particularly to a tail gate spread chain release means for holding the spreader chain at a set distance for spreading the material but providing easy release of the chain even when the weight of the material in the body is pressing against the tail gate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Devices of this general character are known in the prior art for securing a tail gate which is releasable at the lower portion thereof in order to dump the contents of the truck body under the tail gate and chain devices have been used to secure the tail gate in a set position with respect to the material in the dump body. However in the known devices such devices are unwieldy and complicated to use and are difficult to operate since they jam when the truck body material weight exerts itself against the bottom of the tail gate. The jamming of the chain requires that the driver of the vehicle climb into the dump-truck and with a shovel or some other means to free the material from the tail gate so that the chain can be released from the tail gate and the tail gate lifted. All of the prior art known to this inventor has this undesirable feature of jamming when the weight of the material falls against the tail gate and if the material for some reason is stuck in the tail gate or frozen therein such as when salt or other caustic materials are being spread it is practically impossible to remove the chain from the locking device without shovelling and exerting a considerable amount of manual and physical labor in removing the material from the tail gate.